‘We were standing on the beach in Sydney, at Bondi, and it was stormy, not raining but the clouds were rolling in, the sun was going down. I said to the guys – have you ever seen anything like this in your life? It was like being on another planet, it was stunning.’

Page Hamilton , driving force behind heavy metal veterans Helmet, loves Australia and has been looking for any excuse to get back down here. Guitarist Jimmy Thompson is a Western Australian native and despite an extensive Australian tour in 2007 here they come again.

“‘It’s hard to describe to people what’s so great about it. The way the light is down there, the food’s amazing, the people are nice. It’s like, why can’t our country be like this?”

Since the band’s inception in 1989 Helmet has seen fourteen different band members come and go. With Page at the helm, they are in their second era after a six-year hiatus between 1998 and 2004.

Even though he’s still enjoying Helmet, Page is entertaining the idea of laying the band to rest for the second time when he turns 50 in a couple of years. Does he really think it’s going to be that easy to let it go? He’s open to the possibility of a change in plans but says, “Bands have a finite life, we’re not the Rolling Stone. I missed it so much when I wasn’t doing it [so] while I’m physically capable… I don’t wanna get up there and do a half assed show.”

Surprising as it may seem to the unfamiliar; Page has a diverse musicality that is affording him a lot of other opportunities in markedly different genres from the one Helmet falls into. “I still work on orchestration and I wrote four songs for a little indie movie. I’ve scored an indie film – Chicago Cab – which was me playing all the instruments: guitar, organ, bass and harmonica, drum machine. I’ve done a few speaking engagements – that was pretty fun. I’m doing a guitar instructional DVD for Hal Leonard which I’m really excited about. It’s forced me to organise my practice a lot and look into the different aspects of being a musician, not just exploring Helmet.”

He has also been taking the chance to delve further into his love of jazz (‘I spent a lot of time with the jazz stuff and one day I hope I’ll be a serious enough jazz player that I can actually go out and play a repertoire.’) and is even collaborating on some dance pieces with a choreographer friend. (‘What an incredible challenge – for a heavy metal dude who grew up on Led Zeppelin and AC/DC – it’s intriguing.’)

I gotta tell him, until I began researching for this piece I had no idea how varied Page’s projects and skills were, and I’ve been listening to Helmet for yonks. Discussing this brings out the no bullshit attitude that I had been dreading would be present throughout our whole conversation. But where it seemed like borderline arrogance in other interviews I had read, it was simply misconstrued passion.

”[Our former managers] were like “We want people to know about this other stuff you do, the jazz, and what a great musician you are…” [but] I’m not here to prove anything to anybody. I could give a flying fuck if somebody thinks I am a great musician.’ Of course, like any musician worth his salt, Page concedes, ‘I’ve still stuff to learn. I am a musician; I am not a rock star. It wasn’t my goal to get on the cover of Rolling Stone and date models. Rock is a valid form of expression and it’s interesting and I do Helmet cos I like doing it. Music is a constant. Music is a great life path – spiritual, emotional.”

Page laughs out loud when I tell him I just realised that my little brother had just discovered them (with no help from me) fifteen years after I first listened to them.

‘I’m still flattered when people are into Helmet. I love talking to people after shows. I appreciate when people relate to the things you’re saying and the music that you’re making, and they have a physical, emotional, spiritual response.’

And so the grumpy man I had worried I would be speaking to was instead an articulate, light hearted, self confessed ‘heavy metal dude’ who is looking forward to getting back to Australia and (more importantly) the great venues in Melbourne.

“The Hi-Fi! That’s a great room to see a band in. It’s perfect. Come and drink a beer. There’ll be plenty of that. I look forward to seeing you guys – bring your brother down!”

I’m sure Helmet would be happy for me to extend that invitation to all of you too. Better take your chance before Page’s 50th or you might miss out altogether.

FasterLouder is presenting Helmet’s upcoming tour – for details click HERE